tains only 43,560. The Strafburg acre is about half an 
Englifti acre. The Welfh acre contains commonly tw6 
Englifh ones. The Irilh acre is equal to 1 acre, 2 roods, 
and 19 perches Englilh. 
Dr. Grew attempts to afcertain the number of acres in 
England, which, according to him, amounts to 46 mil¬ 
lions and 80,000. The United Provinces are faid to con¬ 
tain 4,382,000 acres: the province of Holland but one 
million of acres. The territory of the United States of 
America, according to calculations lately made by order 
of congrefs, contains 589 millions of acres, exclufive of 
water, which is computed at 51 millions more. 
Acre-fight, an old fort of duel fought by Englifh 
and Scottifh combatants, between the frontiers of their 
kingdoms, with fword and lance : it was alfo called camp¬ 
fight, and the combatants champions, from the open field 
being the ftage of trial. 
Acre-tax, a tax laid on land at fo much per acre. In 
fome places this is alfo called acre-fhot. Impofitions on 
lands in the great level are to be raifed by a proportionable 
acre-tax, 2o Car. II. cap. 8. An acre-tax of 2s. 6d. per 
acre, for draining Hadenham-level, 13 Geo. I. cap. 18. 
ACREA,yi alfo Acroteria, the extremities, i. e. the 
legs, arms, nofe, and ears. Coldnefs in the extremities, 
which do not ealily warm, are bad prefagds in fevers. 
ACRIBEIA,/! a term purely Greek, literally denoting 
an exquifite or delicate accuracy; fometimes ufed in our 
language, for want of a word of equal fignlncation. 
ACRID, adj [acer , Lat.] Of a hot biting talie; bitter; 
fo as to leave a painful heat upon the organs of tafte.— 
Bitter and acrid differ only by the (harp particles of the 
firft being involved in a greater quantity of oil than thofe 
of the laft. Arbuthnot. 
Acrid Medicines are fubffances of a penetrating 
pungency: applied to the fkin, they inflame it; chewed, 
they promote a difcharge of the faliva; and, fnuffed up 
the nofe, they provoke fneezing. Confidered as the fub- 
jeffs of pharmacy, they may be divided into claffes, ac¬ 
cording as they yield their acrimony ; which they do, iff, 
by diftillation. Thusmuffard, horfe-radifh, fcurvy-grafs,. 
&c. give out their properties. 2dly, By infufion only, as 
is the cafe with the greater celandine, pyrethrum, & c. 
3dly, Neither by infufion nor diftillation, as happens with 
the arum, dracunculus, &c. The general effects of acrid 
medicines are to ftimulate the folids, and to dilfolve tena¬ 
cious juices. In leucophlegmatic habits, they are power¬ 
ful expectorants, deobftruents, diuretics, and emmena- 
o-ogues; and, if the patient is kept warm, they are good 
diaphoretics. In constitutions difpofed to inflammation, 
or where there is already a degree of irritation, where the 
'juices are too thin and acrid, or the vifcera not found, thefe 
medicines are not to be ufed, for they aggravate thefe dif- 
orders. The trouble which acrid medicines give to the 
Itomach, is that on which their virtue frequently depends. 
ACRTDOPH AGI, in the ancient geography, an Ethio¬ 
pian people, reprefented as inhabiting near the deferts, 
and to have fed on locufts. This latter circumftance their 
name imports; the word being compounded of the Greek 
axpK, locuft, and (pccyu , to eat. We have the following 
account of them by Diodorus Siculus. Their ftature was 
lower than that of other men; they were meagre, and ex2 
tremely black. In the fpring, high weft winds drove 
from the defert to their quarter locufts of an extraordi¬ 
nary fize, and remarkable for the fqualid colour of their 
win^s. So great was the number of thefe infedts, that 
they were the only fuftenance of the barbarians, who took 
them in the following manner :—At the diftance of fome 
ftadia from their habitations there was a wide and deep 
valley. They filled this valley with wood and wild herbs, 
with which their country abounded. When the cloud of 
locufts appeared, which were driven on by the wind, they 
fet fire to the fuel which they had collected. The fmoke 
which arofe from this immenfe fire was fo thick, that the 
(locufts, in crofting the valley, were ftifled by it, and fell 
A C R 
in heaps on the ground. The paffage of the locufts being 
thus intercepted for many days, they made alargeprovi- 
fion of thofe infedls. As their country produced great 
quantities of fait, they falted them, to render them more 
palatable, and to make them keep till the next feafon. 
This peculiar fupply was their foie food : they had nei¬ 
ther herds nor flocks. They were unacquainted with fifti- 
ing ; for they lived at a diftance from the lea. They were 
very adlive, and ran with great fwiftnefs. But their life 
was not of long duration; it exceeded not forty years; 
and the clofe of it was extremely miferable; for, in 
their old age, winged lice of different, but all of ugly, 
forms, bred in their bodies. This malady, which began 
in the bread and belly, foon fpread through the whole 
frame. The patient at firft felt an itching; and the agree¬ 
able fenfation produced by his fcratching of himfelf, pre¬ 
ceded a moft deplorable calamity. For when thofe lice, 
which had bred in his body, forced their way out, they 
caufed effufions of corrupt blood, with excruciating pains 
in the (kin. The unhappy man, with lamentable cries, 
.was induftrious himfelf to make paffages for them with 
his nails. In fhort, thefe lice iffued forth fucceffively 
from the wounds made by the hands of the patient,, as 
from a velfel full of holes, and in fuch numbers that is 
w'as impoflible to exterminate them. Whether this extra¬ 
ordinary and dreadful diftemper was occafioned by the 
food of the inhabitants of this country, or by a peftilen~ 
tial quality of their climate, it is difficult to determine* 
Indeed, as to the credibility of the whole account, we 
muff: leave the reader to judge. 
But though the circumftance of thefe people (hould be 
deemed fabulous, yet may the acridophagia be true. It is 
well known, that to this day the inhabitants of Ethiopia, 
Arabia, See. frequently tife locufts as food. A late tra^ 
veller, Dr. Sparrman, informs us, “ That locufts fome¬ 
times afford a high treat to the more unpoliftied and re¬ 
mote hordes of the Hottentots; when, as fometimes hap¬ 
pens, after an interval of eight, ten, or twenty, years, they 
make their appearance in incredible numbers. At thefe 
times they come from the north, migrating to the fouth- 
ward, and do not fuffer themfelves to be impeded by any 
obftacles, but fly boldly on, and are drowned in the fea 
whenever they come to it. The females of this race of 
infefts, which are moft apt to migrate, and are chiefly 
eaten, are faid not to be able to fly ; partly by reafon cf 
the (hortnefs of their wings; and partly on account of' 
their being heavy and diftended with eggs ; and, (hortly 
after they have laid thefe in the fand, they arc faid to die. 
It is particularly of thefe that the Hottentots make a 
brown coffee-coloured foup, which, at the fame time, 
acquires from the eggs a fat and greafy appearance. The 
Hottentots are highly rejoiced at the arrival of thefe lo¬ 
cufts, though they are fure to deftroy every bit of ver¬ 
dure on the ground ;' but the Hottentots make thenr- 
felves ample amends for this lofs, by falling foul on the 
animals themfelves, eating them in fuch quantities as in 
the fpace of a few days to get vilibly fatter and in better 
condition than before.” 
The Abbe Poiret, alfo, in his Memoir on the Infers 
of Barbary and Numidia, informs us, “ That the Moors 
make locufts a part of their food ; that they go to hunt 
them; fry them in oil and butter ; and fell them publicly 
at Tunis, at Bonne,” &c. 
From thefe accounts, we may fee the folly of that dif- 
pute among divines about the nature of St. John’s food in 
the wildernefs : fome maintaining the original word to fig- 
nify the fruits of certain trees; others, a kind ol birds, 
&c. but thofe who adhered to the literal meaning of the 
text were at leaf! the moft orthodox, although their ar¬ 
guments were perhaps not fo ftrong as they might have 
been, had they had an opportunity ot quoting fuch au¬ 
thors as the above. 
ACRIMONIOUS, adj. Abounding with acrimony; 
Iharp; corroiive.—If gall cannot be rendered acrimonious^ 
aacl 
